The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-03

his first impulse was to fly with the warn
ing to his wife and child; surely no man
could hold him blamable il he should
bear these first to place of safety!
Yet the path by the ridge was not the
direct one to the factory settlements.
Should he turn aside there were hun
dreds of lives further down to be put in
peril. What if the lives of Janet and the
child were more to linn than the lives of
the scores OF neighbors and friends for
whom God had commissioned him to
make this sacrifice?
"Is the servant better than his Lord
that he should refuse to pay the price de-
msnded for the ransom of many?" The
words we're thought rather than spoken
as he dashed past his home. Every mus
Gle was straining TO the utmost, but there
were those about the mills who, marking
his frantic gestures, came running to
learn of what they portended.
"The lakel the lakel Fly hyp was the
half articulste cry. they caught from his
lips.
A wave of his hand toward the creek
filing the mill wheel interpreted the
direful cry. From mouth to mouth it
few. There was hurrying to and fro,
and gathering of treasures in hot haste
Messengers of warning galloped along
the doomed valley. The weak. the old
were seen climbing the heights. Dwight's
sacrifice had not been vain, but, his duty
done, he had turned back to zee il hsply,
he might yet save his own treasures.
The torrent was leaping against, and tear
ing at the abutments of the bridge as he
reeled across it, and with spent strength
climbed the path to the cottage. Through
the door he had glimpse of Janet with
the child graded in her arms, and above
the roar of the torrent he could hear
the mother grooming her lullaby.
"Max, Maxi Oh, my dear, what is it?"
He lay across the threshold exhausted.
She stepped past him to the porch. Be.
low the cliff the Otter was pounding the
bridges supports. She had seen the
stream as high once before, though.
What was it Max feared? A sound
reached her as she waited. The detona-
ton, sharply distinct, came from dis
lance, but was Immediately followed by a
horrible cruncbing and grinding, pro-
ducing a quivering in the ether about
her. In the same instant, almost, she
beheld far up the Divide, a white wall
rise up from earth to heaven. it was as a
cliffs escsrpment, scooped and bowed
over, and ponderous as it appeared it
was bearing down the gap at terrific
speed. Janet's face blanched, but it was
brave smile she gave her husband as
she lifted him into the room and closed
the door.
81 know what it is, Max" she whisper
ed as she sat down by him with the
child in her arms, and teDderly raised
his head to her lap, sit will not be hard
for us to brave death together"
The roar stupefed their senses; the
ridge shook to it's foundations, the house
quivered like an aspen, as a torrent de-
scended upon it, and pool of water
churned to froth, gathered about the
group. They sat still, unheeding. What
time the work of destruction was wrought
they knew not. Max crept to the door
presently, but as he looked out he utter
ed cry, and turned back to Janet. She
hurried to him, and this was what they
saw: sheer precipice dropping from
their door into the turbulent waste OF
waters boiling along the length and
breadth of the lately smiling landscape
of the Divide.
"The bridge has gone, and with it the
ridge has been clean shaver away up to
our very threshold, Janet" said Max
stricken.
"Yes, the waves and pillows of destruc-
ton have gone over u.s." she cried with
Thanksgiving of heart. "But oh, Max
what of the poor people at the mills and
in the villages?"
He told her shivering, how he had
gone to them, leaving her and the little
one to perish. She stood for a moment
silent
"You would have persisted with us al
the last, though, my Max" she said, hel
hand in his, "only God in his goodness
has left us to each other. Let us accept
his loving kindness as the reward oil
your duty faithfully done."- Neao Yorh
Observer.